How "Drafty" Do You Write?

Usually I don't get to my blog or have a chance to visit my friends' blogs until later in the day.  But I have a weekday off from work for a change.  If you're not a Pennsylvanian you might not realize most of the state closes schools on the first day of deer season.  If we didn't we wouldn't have half our students and teachers in school.
This weekend I finally finished the short story I'm writing as promotion for the upcoming release of the second book in The Futhark Chronicles, Beyond the Gate.  Tamarin's Story will be available shortly in a number of locations but not yet. 
When I say I finished the short story I meant I completed the first draft.  Writing a first draft for me is like a train rolling downhill.  It goes really fast but it's kind of scary and out of control.  It gets to its destination quickly but it's not really graceful or pretty.  I have a friend who writes first drafts I think are nearly ready for submission they're so close to perfect. Not mine.  I write it as fast as I can knowing clean up comes later. First though I put it aside and let it simmer.  My mind may turn to it but I don't look at it for a few days.
A few days ago I posted about slashing scenes and before that I wrote about 'weak words.'  The second draft is all about that.  After letting it alone for a few days, I'll look at my short story or novel with fresh eyes.  I'll read completely through it, making notes.  I'll check for flow between scenes, repetition, POV problems, and slash some scenes.  If it's a novel I might completely remove a subplot or a secondary character to make the story flow better and keep the writing tighter. 
This is the time to read dialogue out loud.  Is it stiff? Does it even make sense? Do I need it all?  Do I need all the dialogue tags?
I'll try to do away with those adverbs and use stronger nouns.  Then I have check for my 'Pennsylvania Dutch.'  If you lived in central PA you would know what I'm talking about.  I don't speak 'Dutch' but it does sneak into my writing a little bit.  'PA Dutch' is a way of speaking that puts the words in an awkward arrangement.  Here's an example of one of my morning chores. 
"After the trash man came I brought into the garage the empty cans."
Looks really weird when you see it written.  Usually I don't write anything as blatant at the above but I still have to search for word arrangement problems. 

Hopefully during this stage I will catch inconsistencies with character appearances, timing problems, and characters speaking out of voice.  If the first draft is really rough, I entirely retype the second one. Then it's ready for submission.

Before publication, my editor will return it at least once with her comments for edits and we'll work those out with both of us compromising( usually it's me) until it's as ready as we can make it.

Galleys will come back to me a few months before the actual book is released.  Usually they have a very tight time schedule of only days.  I love reading galleys.  I found only four typos in the galleys for Beyond the Gate.  The editors and readers did a great job.

So how many drafts do you do before submission?  How many times does your editor ask for changes? If you're self-published, do you have readers who help you with edits and changes?

After a hectic week of checking the manuscript of Beyond the Gate, I’m able to get back to the thousand other things I need to do to get ready for this release. Okay, not quite a thousand but it is quite a few. One of the things I’m doing is working on two short stories that are prequels to The Futhark Chronicles. Then I have to decide where to post them. It’s been fun to revisit the world of Futhark. More about those stories when they’re ready to go.

I’m also still working on my blog tour. I’m not sure how long to make it. Five blogs, ten blogs, more? How long is a tour anyway?
In the meantime, I’ve discovered a few new blogs I’m really enjoying. One is Alex Cavanaugh, a recently published SF writer. Read about his new release, CassaStar.

I’ve found staying up to date on all the things I’m doing to increase my web presence is taking away from my writing time during the evenings. Not much I can do about it for the next two months as I really push the release of Beyond the Gate. So my writing goals will be to finish one of the short stories by the onset of daylight savings time renders the world dark before dinner every night. I believe that occurs November 7th.

Actually though I miss the many hours of sunlight during the winter, I do get more writing done without so many outdoor activities and chores to tempt me. I’m hoping for multiple snowfalls this season. I love shoveling the white stuff when the world is quiet, especially after dark. Of course, one of the neighbors will eventually power up their snow blower and ruin the peace.

So do you get more writing and reading done in the winter or are you disciplined enough to work like hours no matter the season?

Posting Guilt

I haven't updated my blog for almost two weeks.  I feel horribly guilty for neglecting not only my own blog but also those of my friends. I had a hard deadline on edits for Beyond the Gate, Book II in The Futhark Chronicles.  It was the most difficult edits I've done so far. I won't go into the details here, but at some later date I will vent a little about different expectations from editors. What's a writer to do when one editor demands every 'that' in the manuscript be removed and a different editor puts them back in?  Mmm.
But today I sent off the changes almost 36 hours before my deadline and this during the first week of school and in between two four hour hockey scrimmages, back to school shopping and delivering one child to college.  I think I'll take a few days to just catch up with my friends on facebook and update this blog and my website.
For you bloggers out there, what was the longest you ever neglected your blog or social network? And did you have a good reason?

What I Meant to Say

I've been trying for the last three days to finish reading over the final galleys for To Tame a Tiger. Why just trying? I made an entire list of things to describe the chaos of my life but Vicki Smith does it so much better than I. I think she's been living my life. (Isn't there a country song about that?)
Anyway, hop over to Vicki's blog and see all my excuses. But I did finish the galleys and sent the changes back to my lovely editor. What a relief. Now I can get back to writing, Beneath the Mountain, Book Four of The Futhark Chronicles.
Now as to what I wish I was doing this week visit my blog friend, Lori Myers, over at The Susquehanna Writers.
I really hope I have a vacation to write about this summer. But with two in college this fall, it ain't lookin good.